Street of No Return (France, 1989) 93 min color DIR: Samuel Fuller. SCR: Jaques Bral, Samuel Fuller, based on the novel by David Goodis. PROD: Francis Dreyfus. MUSIC: Karl-Heinz Schafer. DOP: Pierre-William Glenn. CAST: Keith Carradine, Valentina Vargas, Bill Duke, Andrea Ferreol, Bernard Fresson. (Fantoma)
The final film directed by the legendary Sam Fuller, based on a novel by David Goodis, this is a 1980s collusion of film noir and bigger guns. Keith Carradine is cast as a former heartthrob singer, now voiceless and homeless after his throat is slashed in a double cross. When he witnesses a race war in the streets, he thusly becomes implicated in the murder of a man whose life he tried to save. However, in an effort to clear his name, he tracks down the real culprit, and strangely enough, the trail leads to the same people that double crossed him all those years ago. Before long, drugs and bad dudes with big guns fill the menu.
As always, this Fuller film (admittedly taken from another source) has some interesting characterizations– Carradine walks around in the film’s present, acting like Highlander with laryngitis; Andrea Ferreol is his agent whose love for him is unrequited; Valentina Vargas is Carradine’s new girlfriend who leads him down the path to that fateful double cross, and best of all, director Bill Duke is cast as the no-nonsense black police chief out to make life utter hell for Carradine, in the belief that he killed this man in the race riots.
One can see that Fuller is trying for some throwback to classic film noir, but the film has some kind of otherworldly presence about it. His work generally stands apart from genre conventions for their the outrageous plots or characters- yet this seems to be a film made out of place and time. The 78 year-old director has made an attempt in compete in the 1980s, with its slick look, trenchcoats and Rambo-esque gunfire. Its strain for realism is hampered when for instance the opening act is shot on an obvious sound stage (in Portugal). Although this effort is alternately exciting, amusing, outrageous and slow, he is clearly having fun in his directorial swansong, so how can you not?
Long unavailable in North America until its DVD debut by Fantoma, this release is essential for a “making of…” short, highlighting an interview on location with the cigar-chomping septuagenarian. This alone is worth the price, especially for fans for the director. Was there ever more of a colourful filmmaker than Sam Fuller? This wizened old man still has a spark in his eye, a gift for wild storytelling, and his thoughts about racism and hypocrisy will grab you. As always, Fuller exposes the underbelly of humanity, and what he shares with you may be bizarre or unpleasant, but it’s an experience all the same.
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #9.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.